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The Prodigy

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For other uses, see Prodigy (disambiguation).

The Prodigy
File:Prodigy-02.jpg
The Prodigy from the Baby's Got a Temper era.
From left: Keith Flint, Liam Howlett and Maxim
Background information
OriginBraintree, Essex
Years active1990–present
MembersLiam Howlett
Keith Flint
Maxim

The Prodigy (or just Prodigy) is a British Big Beat band, whose music consists of various styles ranging from rave and hardcore techno in the early 1990s to alternative rock and bigbeat with punk vocal elements in later times. The current band members include Liam Howlett (composer/keyboards), Keith Flint (dancer/vocalist) and Maxim (MC/vocalist). Leeroy Thornhill (dancer/live keyboards) was a member of the band from 1990 to 2000, as well was a female dancer/vocalist called Sharky who left the band during their early period. The Prodigy first emerged on the underground rave scene in the early 1990s, and have since then achieved immense popularity and worldwide renown. Some of their most popular songs include "Charly," "Out of Space," "Smack My Bitch Up," "Voodoo People", "No Good (Start the Dance)," "Breathe" and "Firestarter."

History

Beginnings

The Prodigy began with an initial 10-track demo by Liam Howlett, put together on a Roland W-30 sequencer keyboard in Essex, England. XL Recordings picked up the demo and an initial 12" pressing of What Evil Lurks was released in February 1991. The Prodigy's name was a moniker Liam had chosen as a tribute to his first analogue synthesiser, the Moog Prodigy. Although the band's name seemed to change from The Prodigy to Prodigy between the releases of Music for the Jilted Generation and The Fat of the Land in 1996, and thereafter back again to the former within the release of Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned in 2004, it was only due to fit in the changing logos, according to Howlett.[1][2]

The Prodigy's first public performance (with Howlett augmented by dancers Keith Flint and Leeroy Thornhill) was at the Four Aces in Dalston, London. Charly, released six months later, was a huge hit in the British rave scene of the time, catapulting the band into the wider public consciousness for the first time. Some critics were later to identify the release of Charly, with its memorable sample of a government television infomercial aimed at children (Charley Says), as the song that instigated the ultimate destruction of the underground rave scene, opening the door to a flood of rave tracks many of the genre's devotees considered of lesser quality, such as Urban Hype's Trip to Trumpton, and Smart E's Sesame's Treet. Charly was soon followed by the band's first full length album, The Prodigy Experience, a landmark release in the history of British rave music. The album track "Death of the Prodigy Dancers" featured hip-hop MC Maxim Reality who was to subsequently join The Prodigy as a fourth full time member.

After The Prodigy Experience, and the run of singles that accompanied it, the Prodigy moved to distance themselves from the "kiddie rave" reputation that now dogged them. The rave scene was beginning to implode, with promises of "anti-rave" legislation on the horizon. In 1993, Howlett released an anonymous white label, bearing only the title Earthbound I. Its hypnotic, hard-edged sound won wide underground approval. Many former critics of the band were astounded when they finally acknowledged responsibility for the record[citation needed]. It was officially released as "One Love" later that year, and went on to chart at #8 in the UK.

In 1994, the Prodigy's second album, Music for the Jilted Generation, displayed a wider spectrum of musical style. Heavyweight dancefloor tunes still abounded, but were complemented by more unusual tracks such as the concept piece The Narcotic Suite, and rock-oriented inclinations ("Their Law", featuring Pop Will Eat Itself). The album was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize. In the sleevenotes, however, Howlett reaffirmed his dedication to the rave music scene.

The international success of Music for the Jilted Generation meant that touring beyond the UK was now a viable prospect. The band augmented their line-up with guitarist Jim Davies (from the group Pitchshifter) in 1995 for tracks such as Their Law, Break And Enter 95, and various live-only interludes and versions. The 1996 release of Firestarter, featuring vocals for the first time courtesy of a new-look Keith Flint, helped the band break into the US and other overseas markets, and reached number one in the UK. In this year the Prodigy also headlined the prestigious Lollapalooza festival. The Prodigy have toured all over the world, including Beirut and Moscow's Red Square.

The third Prodigy album, The Fat of the Land, was released in 1997. Like its predecessors, the album represented a new milestone in the development of both the band and the wider mainstream dance scene. Featuring simplified melodies, sparser sampling, and more sneering, punk-like vocals (supplied by a shockingly madeover Flint), the album nevertheless retained the bone-jarring breaks and buzzsaw synth so idiomatic of the band. The album cemented the band's position as one of the most internationally successful acts in the hard dance genre, entering the British and American charts at number one. The best selling single, Breathe (1996), was taken from this album, as was Firestarter, the group's first UK number one.

The Prodigy have been nominated twice for the Mercury Music Prize, in 1994 with Music for the Jilted Generation, and again in 1997 with The Fat of the Land, however they failed to win both times.

"Smack My Bitch Up" controversy (USA)

File:Prodigy Ant-01.jpg
The Prodigy logo in The Fat of the Land era.

Prodigy was getting a lot of airplay on rock stations with their track, "Smack My Bitch Up," and were getting even more negative backlash for the song. Time-Warner, Prodigy's parent company, was feeling the heat from the National Organization for Women (NOW) over the track. Although the song's lyrics are few but repetitive (in their entirety, the lyrics are "Change my pitch up, smack my bitch up"), NOW stated that the lyrics are a "...dangerous and offensive message advocating violence against women." Howlett responded to the attacks by claiming that the song's lyrics are being misinterpreted: (the song means) "...doing anything intensely, like being on stage - going for extreme manic energy." The band did not write the lyric, but rather sampled it from the classic Ultramagnetic MCs' track "Give The Drummer Some" which also appears on the Dirtchamber Sessions (they had also sampled another Ultramagnetic MCs song "Critical Beatdown" on their earlier "Out of Space" single).[3] Several radio stations defended the song, yet only played the track at night. The music video (directed by Jonas Åkerlund) featured a first-person POV of someone going clubbing, indulging in large amounts of drugs and alcohol, getting into fist fights with men, abusing women and picking up a prostitute. At the end of the video the camera pans over to a mirror, revealing the subject to be a woman. MTV only aired the video between 1 and 5 a.m. in order for mature viewers to see the "groundbreaking" images. The director got the inspiration for contents of the video after a night of drinking and partying in Copenhagen.

Wal-mart and Kmart later announced they would pull The Fat of the Land off their shelves. Even though the LP had resided on their store shelves for over 20 weeks, the two stores found the marketing campaign for the new single release offensive.

In mid-2002, the full-on unedited version of this video was aired on MTV2 as part of a special countdown showing the most controversial videos ever to air on MTV. This countdown was only shown late at night because of the graphic imagery of "Smack My Bitch Up" and several other videos on the countdown. This video in particular was deemed the "Most Controversial Video" by MTV and showed at the #1 spot on the countdown.

Fake Release

In 1998 an album appearing to be a Prodigy release came around, entitled The Castbreeder. Many believed it to be a real release as the craftmanship was of high quality; however, the graphics from Music for the Jilted Generation and a wrong logotype for XL Recordings pointed it out to be a fake. Likewise, the music on the album was in fact not the work of The Prodigy, rather consisting mostly of songs by Junkie XL.[4]

Later Works

1999 saw the release of The Prodigy's Dirtchamber Sessions Volume 1, a DJ mix album by Howlett, produced as an official record of a successful guest appearance on the British Radio 1.

In 2002, after a break from touring and recording, the single "Baby's Got a Temper" was released to critical disappointment. The song was written by Keith Flint's sideband, Flint, and also featured Jim Davies. Howlett produced it. Once again, the band courted controversy by including references to the so-called "date rape" drug Rohypnol in the song lyrics, although it is unclear whether or not the band "glorifies" or presents the drug in a negative light. In the same year, however, Q magazine named The Prodigy as one of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die".

The Prodigy's fourth studio album, Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned was released on 23 August 2004 (14 September 2004 in the USA.) A precursory and experimental single, "Memphis Bells", was released in very limited numbers, followed by the traditional release of the single "Girls".

5,000 digital copies of "Memphis Bells" were sold over the Internet. Each copy was a combination of customer-chosen instrumental, rhythmic, and melodic options, of which 39,600 (of 660,000 total) choices were available. Five mixes were sold in three file formats, WAV, two audio mixes in MP3, and a 5.1 DTS Multichannel audio mix and all were free of Digital rights management. The experiment was a success, with the 5,000 copies being sold in just over 36 hours in spite of server problems from the demand.

In 2005, they released a compilation, Their Law: The Singles 1990-2005, which spawned a single containing new remixes of the songs "Out of Space" (the "Audio Bully Remix") and "Voodoo People" (the "Pendulum Remix"). The latter was also followed by a music video which featured on the DVD release of the compilation. Sharky, the group's only female member, is shown running and winning the race depicted in the video.

Their work has been featured in several video games and movies. For instance, the video game Need For Speed: Most Wanted featured the song "You'll Be under My Wheels", which was also used in an advert for the BMW 1 Series. As from the album The Fat of the Land, songs like "Firestarter" appeared in its instrumental version in the videogame Wipeout 2097, while "Mindfields" appeared in the film The Matrix, and the track "Funky Shit" in the closing scene and end credits of Event Horizon. The title "Voodoo People" appears in the soundtrack of the movie Hackers and also in the French movies Wasabi and Dobermann.

Development

The Prodigy are a difficult band to classify, because they have developed significantly with time. Each of their albums represents a distinct stage in the band's musical development. From their initial inception as a psychedelic rave band with scene staples such as "Your Love" and "Out of Space", to the much more mainstream dance of "No Good", to the rock-oriented "Their Law" to punk tracks such as the L7 cover "Fuel My Fire" in more recent years, the Prodigy continue to innovate and surprise. The Prodigy have had the ability over the years to appeal to widely varying cross-sections music fans; from the purist dance festival Creamfields, to the more general appeal of T In The Park, to the heavy metal oriented Download Festival.

Because of their broad appeal to fans across several genres, The Prodigy have been described as "A rock band that plays dance music," which many would agree was a fair summation of their work. Others see them as a rave band forced to diversify to survive.

Current recording sessions (2005-2006)

During the Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned tour the band debuted two new songs, 'Warning' and 'Dead Ken Beats'. 'Warning' features Keith Flint on vocals and consists of heavy basslines and guitar riffs, whilst Dead Ken Beat contains a sample of the Dead Kennedys song 'California Uber Alles' that features prominently throughout, and has Maxim doing vocal duties. Both these tracks have undergone significant development during the recent tour, and on at least one occasion Liam Howlett has confirmed that Dead Ken Beats would feature on the next Prodigy record,

"Dead ken beats will definitely be on that record, we were talking about it tonight. Dead ken is a track we really like, we like the groove and the beat and it’s really fucking tough. its still developing. It’s a different groove; it’s really kind of fresh sounding. It’s a track im really going to have to go and find the right vocal for, which is one of the things I am doing right now."[citation needed]

A track that mixed 'Spitfire (Nitebreed Remix)' with 'Wake Up Call' has been played frequently live by The Prodigy, and was released in January 2006 as 'Wake The Fuck Up' on Liam's 'Back To Mine' compilation. Another new track was played during the 'Their Law' tour, which was printed on a setlist as being called 'Heatwave'. It is thought that it has been renamed 'Heatwave Hurricane', due to Liam listing it as this among his current favourite songs for a recent interview. It has been described as "something like a cross between Hotride (live version) & the Firestarter remix". A short clip can be seen on Youtube, revealing that the song includes a sample of 'I'm Five Years Ahead Of My Time' by The Third Bardo, a song which is also featured on Liam's 'Back To Mine' compilation. The new album is set to be released in late 2007.

Members

Current members

Ex-members

Live members

Former live members

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Singles

Notes and references

  1. ^ James M, Prodigy book (2002), pg. 44, Sanctuary Publishing, mentions that Liam chose the name to attribute his Moog synth.
  2. ^ Howlett L, Nekozine online zine (November 2005), name's changes mentioned in an interview with Liam Howlett by Andrea Schnepf, last accessed 25 May 2005 (link).
  3. ^ Liner notes from Out Of Space single and Experience album.
  4. ^ http://www.brainkiller.it/prodigy/special.html
  • The Prodigy - Official website.
  • TheProdigy.nl - Good updated fansite.
  • Nekozine - Features interviews, news, tourdates, concert reviews, information, some visuals, and a forum.
  • Juge's Prodigy Site - Contains most of the stuff you would ever like to know about the band.
  • Brainkiller - The site features news, downloads, concert reviews, pictures, discography and a forum.
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